Disclaimer. I know I'm pretty bad with the excessive use of jumpcuts and timeskips, but this chapter starts with an obscenely obnoxious jumpcut, skipping almost the entire second half of what happens in "Black and White."
Sorry, but I really didn't want to write something that you could just watch on the show itself. I'm sure Ed would've done something, but his presence probably wouldn't have made too big of a difference. Along with Penny, he acts as the deus ex machina that saves the day with his crazy ability to destroy the bullheads at will.
And such, I will skip ahead to my parts of the story, even though the thought of it makes me want to push a pencil into my eye. I just hope you readers don't have any pencils around when you read this either.
"Now what the hell was that all about?" Roman muttered under his breath. He looked up curiously when he heard a slight shuffling sound a few feet in front of him. One of Junior's men had just fixed his posture as Roman approached, straightening his back to an uncomfortable degree as Roman drew closer to him.
Roman chuckled a bit, his sour mood lifting a little. It was nice to be reminded that he could still intimidate at least one man. Of course, it was a sad bar to hold when he was proud of scaring the scrawny looking man, but after a day like the one that he just had, the simple gesture was able to brighten his mood by a little bit.
He stopped a few feet away from the hired grunt and just stared at him. He almost laughed out loud when the grunt's eyes locked with his own. They were a bit fearful, but they were calm enough to imply that the grunt thought he was being inconspicuous. Roman could tell that the grunt had forgotten that his red-tinted sunglasses didn't cover the sides of his face or else the grunt wouldn't have stared at him so obviously.
Roman stood up and tapped at the bridge of his own nose and almost lost his composure when the grunt's eyes widened with fear and quickly turned away from Roman.
Roman's grin widened like the smile of a Cheshire cat. He stepped up towards the grunt and patted him on the chest as he walked past him. "You're a good man, Joe," he said pulling out a random name from thin air.
He chuckled to himself as he heard a big sigh of relief behind him a few seconds later. No doubt, the thug had thought he was too far away to hear, but of course he was too dumb to realise that the sound would travel so far in the empty air. Still, Roman much preferred a dumb human's company to a dumb animal's.
Walking a bit further down the rows of identical storage buildings, he counted down to zero, turned to the left, and knocked twice on the wall of the building. After a few seconds, he heard a dull mechanical sounds as the door of the building slowly rose up.
He watched as the door rose and sighed, tapping his foot in impatience. Out of all of his safe houses, this was probably his least favourite. The walk was long and the door was frustratingly slow. The minor inconveniences that surrounded this place annoyed him, which was why he had chosen to give this location away to Cinder and the White Fang. They were almost doing him a favour by giving him a reason to eventually abandon the place.
Finally, the door opened and Roman stepped inside. "Keep it open," he said as he heard the mechanical sound come from the door again.
He walked over to the nearby desk and set down a case that he had been holding in his hand. If anyone opened it up, they would see that it was filled to the brim with dust. Of course, if anyone knew Roman Torchwick well enough, they would assume that the more important contents would be hidden underneath that dust. It might have been filled with Lien, or maybe there would be a scroll with valuable information about the next heist target.
Roman grinned to himself as he thought of the surprised expression that would appear on Neo's face if he were to reveal to her that he had taken the time to transport a case full of dust with his own hands. She wouldn't have believed him and she would check the case of course, but she would find nothing but dust. Low quality dust, in fact. She would look up to Roman with a confused expression and Roman would look down at her with a mocking grin.
But Roman hadn't brought a case full of worthless dust to the safe house to play an imaginary scenario in his head. He just needed an excuse to be where he could easily be found. It was a poor excuse that Cinder would probably see through, but he shuddered at the thought of what she would do to track him down after his… unfortunate accident.
"How very disappointing, Roman." A sultry voice rung out from behind him. He rolled his eyes to himself before turning around and donning a surprised expression.
"Woah!" he yelled. "Wasn't expecting to see you guys so soon," he lied.
"And we were expecting more from you," Cinder shot back. Roman noted in relief that she was still smiling at him. It wasn't a nice smile, but it was good to know that Cinder wasn't in a terrible mood.
"Hey!" he said, with a casual laugh to accompany it. "You were the ones to suggest working with those stupid mutts from the White Fang."
"And you will continue to do so," she replied, letting a flame grow in her hand with a casual carelessness that came as easily as Roman's laugh. "We have big plans for you, Roman. All we ask is a little cooperation."
Roman gave a casual smile and gave her a deep and mocking bow. "And I am happy to give you my cooperation," he lied. "It would just be nice if I could choose my own men for this mission. I can't believe I'm saying this, but somehow the goons that I hired from Junior are much more competent than those filthy mongrels that you loaned to me. I can't even believe that the White Fang can be taken seriously."
Cinder ignored his mocking tone and shook her head. "We need the White Fang, Roman. No matter how useless they may be."
"Sure, sure," he said waving his hands dismissively. "But why do I have to be the ones to keep them on a leash?"
"Roman, Roman, Roman. How many times do I have to tell you?" Cinder said as she walked closer towards Roman. He knew what was coming, but he didn't back away. "You'll get the answer to all your questions when the time is right." She extinguished the flame in her hand and reached up to place her palm gently against Roman's face. Roman couldn't help but wince as he felt the heat emanating from her hands. Looking at Cinder's face, it seemed like his reaction had pleased her.
"Now, Roman. What's this I hear about you being defeated by a couple of teenagers? I never thought that the best thief in Vale wouldn't have any trouble with a few Hunters-in-training."
"That's what I'm saying!" he exclaimed before remembering the uncomfortably warm sensation on his face. "I'm serious when I say that the White Fang are only bringing me down. They're just a bunch of untrained mutts who can't remember orders for more than ten seconds. If any of them were competent enough to actually use those tiny brains of theirs, we wouldn't even have had to deal with those brats in the first place."
Cinder's smile didn't falter. "Just hold on for a bit longer, will you? I'm sure that someone with your expertise can work around this small problem." She let go of Roman's face and a flame reappeared in her hand. Roman gulped as he understood the unspoken "Or else" that Cinder had given him.
"Fine, fine," he said, trying to act as calm as possible, but even he could feel that his act probably looked unconvincing.
Cinder gave a soft laugh and closed her fist, extinguishing the flame within. "Thank you, Roman. I hope you'll stay this agreeable in the future. We'll be seeing you soon."
Roman waited until he couldn't hear the clacking of her high heels before he waited another hundred seconds. When he was convinced that they were truly gone, he let out a breath and drew a cigar from his inner pocket. A second later, he brought his lighter out but let the cigar sit in his mouth for a few seconds before he tried his hand at lighting it.
The first few tries only created sparks with no flame. He was tempted to blame his lighter, but he knew that it was his shaking hands that prevented him from lighting his cigar.
"Doesn't feel too good does it, Roman?" A voice crawled in from outside the door. "I know how you feel. There's somebody bigger than you and you can't do anything but bend to their whims. You must feel so very frustrated."
Roman's eyes narrowed as the goon stepped into the dim light that came from the single bulb that hung overhead. "Oh? Little grunt hopes to empathise with his boss?" Roman asked the questions with an amused tone that didn't match the anger in his eyes.
The goon gave him a wide smile. He was either stupid or crazy. Probably both. "Boss?" he asked, giving a slightly hysterical laugh. "No Roman. I think that both of us are tired of 'bosses.' I was thinking that we could be… friends."
Roman gave the goon a genuine look of confusion. Never in his life had he seen a hired hand get so bold. "Excuse me?" he said uncertainly.
"Come now, Roman," the goon said as he stepped closer. Roman raised an eyebrow as the goon's body sparked with a red energy. At first, he thought that the goon was preparing some sort of attack, but his curiosity grew as the goon's body started to transform. "Why can't we see eye to eye?" the man asked with a casual gesture that looked perfectly right on Roman's face.
"Love the new look, but that's certainly not the most impressive semblance I've ever seen," Roman said. His own face looked back at him with the same persistent grin that the man kept on his face. It was a bit more bearable now that it wasn't a goon that was giving him that look. "Tell me why I shouldn't blow your head of right now."
"I have secrets, Roman." the other Roman said, with a coyness that seemed a bit foreign to the man's face. "Secrets that you would love to know."
Roman raised an eyebrow. In most situations, he would have assumed that the other Roman was trying to blackmail him, but with the strange tone of voice that his clone had used, he wasn't so sure. "And what exactly do you mean by that?" he asked, trying to sound casual and disinterested.
"To be honest, at first I was just going to watch this whole scenario unfold by itself. I'm not really one for standing out, so I was planning to stay in the shadows, mostly watching, sometimes intervening when I saw the potential for fun. But then I saw you dear Roman," he said, his grin even wider to the point where it would have probably hurt if Roman tried to copy it. "You and your little power dynamic between you and your lady friend. Your boss."
Roman scowled and raised his cane. "Get to the point or I'll blow your head off, right here and now."
The other Roman cocked his head. "The way I see it, there's a hidden war going on between two parties. There's the good guys, up in their little towers at Beacon, and there's the bad guys, with their fingers wrapped around the necks of the White Fang. And then there's you." The other Roman pointed at Roman and gave him a smile that made him admire the man's facial flexibility. "A little ant, waiting to be crushed in between them."
A small click sounded in the empty warehouse, followed by a much larger booming sound.
"Egh." Roman cringed as he looked down at his bloodstained suit. "The little bastard didn't even have an aura." The suit was ruined. He would have to burn it and use a different one.
When Roman looked up, he almost jumped back in shock. The sight of dead bodies was nothing new for him, but he had never seen his own body without a head before. Despite being headless, the body twitched as it remained standing, still pointing its finger at Roman's face.
"Well, that was disappointing," Roman said as he brought his lighter out from his pocket once again. In a single, easy flick of his finger, a small and calm flame burst into existence. He brought the flame to his mouth to finally light the cigar in his mouth. If anything, Roman had to thank the wannabe criminal for calming down his nerves.
He was about to turn around to pick up his case and leave, but a flash of red light stopped him in his tracks. His eyes widened as he recognized the tell-tale signs of a suicide bombing and flared his aura to protect himself, but when he looked up, he barely noticed as that the lit cigar fell out of his slack-jawed mouth.
In front of his eyes, his clone was regenerating. He could see the bone and sinew forming from the neck to eventually create the shape of a head. The body didn't move at all, and the familiar grin accompanied the pointing finger once again.
"I'm baaack," the Roman clone said in a sing-song voice.
Roman jumped back and flared his aura around his brain. Nothing changed. He frowned. That meant that at the very least, it wasn't Emerald's semblance. He had learned very quickly how to counter that brat's hallucinations so what he had just seen wasn't her doing. Was the clone an illusionist like Neo?
He shot again. This time, the clone's head twisted in an inhuman fashion, as if its neck were made out of clay, and almost casually dodged the bullet.
"The bullets are a bit strange here," the clone mused, looking back at the damage it had caused on the opposite wall. "I can't argue with the results, but it was slow enough that I could actually see it moving." It shook its head. "Bad show."
"Okay, you've made your point. You're strong," Roman stated, fingering his scroll with one hand. He was confident that he could run away pretty easily even if it turned out that the shapeshifter was stronger than he was, but he still wanted some insurance. "What do you want?"
"Well, I was getting to that part before you killed me, you ass," the shapeshifter said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "But since I'm a nice guy I'll assume that was a little mistake."
With a flourish of the wrist and a short bow, the red sparks of energy reappeared and slowly, Roman's form and appearance were replaced by a shorter man with long hair and sharp eyes. The only thing that remained the same was the ever-present grin. Unlike the time when he was assuming the goon's or Roman's form, the uncomfortably wide smile seemed to fit the shapeshifter's new appearance perfectly.
"As I said before, you are just an ant, waiting to be crushed. You're an expendable pawn, Roman, and that lady will eventually find that she would be better off sacrificing you than keeping you alive. But I," the shapeshifter bowed deep towards the ground, to the point where his forehead was almost touching his knees. "I'd hate to see such potential go to waste. I want to make you into the third party in this strange war you have in this world, equal in power to both the baddies and the goodies."
Roman scoffed at the outrageous claim. "Okay, kid. How do you suppose you'll do that, and why me? What's in it for you?" Roman pressed the 'send' key of his scroll.
The shapeshifter straightened up and put his hand on his mouth in a display of mock surprise. "Oh goodness me," he said, with a parody of a formal accent. He giggled bit at his own ridiculous accent. "I forgot to introduce myself. Envy the Jealous, here. Professional pawn. At your service."
"Professional pawn?" Roman asked, letting a hint of amusement crawl into his voice. "That doesn't really sell your case too well, kid."
"Oh, but it does!" Envy exclaimed, excitedly. "I'm no ordinary pawn, I'm a professional. I've been a pawn for so many sides I don't even remember them all. A lot of times I was a pawn for two opposing sides at the same time."
"So you're a spy?" Roman asked.
"Not a spy." Envy wagged his finger at him. "A saboteur. I destroy both sides of a conflict so the third unknown side can collect the spoils."
Roman raised an eyebrow at this. It was the first thing that the crazy kid had said that actually spoke to him. He didn't really care too much for good or evil, but he loved a good profit.
"Okay, kid. You got me interested," Roman admitted and lowered his cane. "Give me your thirty second pitch."
Envy smiled. "I knew you would see eye-to-eye with me, Roman. I propose we start things off with a friendship. Nothing solid yet, but we'd still be owing each other small… favours."
Roman grimaced. "You've lost me, kid. You never give out such vague promises. Okay, how about this? Instead of convincing me why we should work together, why don't you convince me about what's stopping me from making sure you never leave this place ever again."
"Aside from the fact that you can't stop me?" Envy asked, genuinely confused. "Didn't you just see me survive after getting my head blown off?"
Roman shrugged. "Parlour tricks. Illusions, smoke and mirrors, magic shows. I've seen better."
"Hmm. It's not really too important if you think that, but is there any way to convince you that I'm the real deal?"
Roman smiled. "Sure there is. Neo?"
Seemingly appearing from nowhere, Roman watched as a blade emerged from Envy's chest, directly over where his heart should be. Envy looked down in surprise and coughed, spattering blood across the floor. The blade slowly disappeared, and Envy fell over, revealing a petite girl behind him.
"Thank you Neo," Roman said. Neo gave him a small smile and curtseyed in reply. "Is he dead?" She nodded.
But a red light flashed and Neo jumped back in surprise. Roman remained where he was and simply watched in interest as Envy stood back up.
"Woah, I'm impressed," Envy said as he gave the short girl a look of respect. "That was the cleanest death I've had in a long time. You didn't even touch anything unnecessary."
Roman looked on as Neo gave Envy a short and uncertain nod. She looked back at him with a questioning gaze, but he ignored it for the moment. "So you can regenerate after certain death," he said simply. "I guess that's one part of your story that we've confirmed."
Envy gave him a hurt look, but his eyes twinkled with an obvious amusement. "Roman, my friend. I'm shocked. How could you not trust me?"
"And why would I trust you?" Roman shot back.
Envy nodded sagely. "Wise man, Roman. Only an idiot would trust someone so suspicious. I'm glad you're so smart. You know what? Let's change the previous terms." Envy held up two fingers. "I'm only going to request two things from you. I want to be able to contact you whenever I want, and I want to be able to give you information and advice. Whether you listen to it or not is up to you."
"And what exactly do you get out of this?"
"I'm going to be honest with you, Roman, and you might not like the answer," Roman tensed a bit at this claim, but didn't let it show. "I love chaos. I know you probably only care about making the most money and experiencing the thrill of doing just that, but I know that like all humans, you love to win. You love to be on the winning side, and I love it when a shadowy dark horse bursts into the fray and destroys the competition." Envy gave him another wide grin. "And you winning would be the craziest outcome that could come about this war."
Roman's eyes narrowed and he was about to raise his cane and shoot his again, but he hesitated. Aside from the fact that he assumed it would be useless to kill him again, Roman recognized that some things that Envy had claimed were not just an opinion or a feeling. He wanted to be on Cinder's side when war broke loose because he knew that they would win, but would she really let him stand alongside her?
He looked up at Envy and sighed. Extending his arm, he started to walk towards him. "We're not friends yet, but I guess I can see where this leads."
Envy smiled and reached for Roman's hand, despite being a couple of meters away. Roman's eyes widened as Envy's arm snaked towards his own. His first instinct was to pull his arm back, but Envy had already caught it in his hands.
"I'm looking forward to it," he said, with the familiar grin plastered onto his face.
Woah! Super short chapter compared to usual! I could've written more for this chapter, but I thought that it felt pretty nice as one continuous segment rather than having a scene change like I usually do.
This chapter came out exactly as I had hoped it to! Envy snark vs Roman snark.
Woah. Barely any Author's Note this time around. I guess I'll use this empty space to apologize once again for the HUGE timeskip past the battle. I'm not a fan of writing or reading fight scenes and I admit that that fact probably played a part in me deciding to skip it.
I also wanted to take some time to give my appreciation to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, favourited, and enjoyed this story. You guys are the best and I never expected for this to get so much love from the community. I try to respond to every positive review whenever possible, but for those unlucky few that I missed and those of you who don't like to review, I just wanted to give a huge shoutout and a huge thanks to all of you. You're all great and you're all the best.
Also, Woah. 70+ Reviews, 180+ Favourites, 280+ Followers, 21,000+ Views?! You guys are insane!
The good kind of insane. Thank you, for reading. Look forward to the next chapter that will be coming whenever I write it!